Winter Solstice: 11/6 through 3/26

A barn, live oak tree, and Spanish moss are sure signs you’re

somewhere in Florida. As a matter of fact, this is a common

sight in rural Oseola County of which Kissimmee is the county seat.

With the passing of many more days than intended, it’s time to do another update to the blog. So, here goes.

The entrance to Great Oak RV Resort — our third season to be here.

Arriving at Great Oak RV Resort in Kissimmee for our third season felt a lot like coming back home. Traveling in for the last few miles involved looking around the Kissimmee area to see what had changed over the summer and what was the same. As to the park itself, little has changed. We were just among the early ones to return. Many other snowbirds don’t come in until after Thanksgiving. Most of the Canadians, of course, plan to be here no longer than five months but the do come to avoid the chance of snow.

We allowed ourselves a few days of being here before returning to our previous positions. The crew at Chick-fil-A was thrilled to see Martha return. Some fellow cast members at Walt Disney World were glad to see Byron return as well, some are also seasonal and a few year-round. For sure, it didn’t take long to get back into the routine. We were also welcomed back to our Sunday School class at First United Methodist in Kissimmee. In fact, Byron started teaching the third week after arriving. He continued to teach until the last Sunday on March 26.

Inside Casey’s Corner — lined up placing orders.

Thanksgiving and Christmas at the RV park means gathering for a group meal in the club house. Those are the opportunities that about one-half of those present get together in one place. Some who live in the park year round tend to stay away.

Martha worked between four and five days per week each week that we were in Kissimmee. Byron, as a seasonal cast member, gets to set his availability which was Monday and Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. To maintain employment he must complete 150 hours in a calendar year. For 2016 he ended up with 328 hours. Before leaving at the end of March he had already logged 162 hours. Of course, we set aside some time off to go to Westin where Ashley, Michael and grandchildren live. After Christmas Candice came for a week.

Our new “tradition” is attending a performance of the

Candlelight Processional with several performances

annually at EPCOT. It involves a guest narrator,

a core choir and orchestra, and choirs from

area high schools and colleges.

When Candice was with us after Christmas, Ashley and the

grandchildren came to Kissimmee so we could go to

Magic Kingdom together. Here we are with “Boss Mickey.”

Another tradition we’ve developed is taking visitors to WDW to ride the monorail. We stop at the three resorts on the route (Contemporary, Grand Floridian, and Polynesian) or drive to the Wilderness Lodge (built like the Old Faithful Lodge in Yellowstone) to see the Christmas decorations.

Annually a crew at the Grand Floridian builds this

large gingerbread house.

This is the interior of Wilderness Lodge decorated for

the Christmas season.

In January we went to Legoland Florida, which is on the property of the old Cypress Gardens that was founded in the 1930’s. It is in Winter Haven. This was our first time to Legoland and were impressed by all the colorful sculptures made with Legos. The kids, of course, enjoyed the rides. We all had a good day together though it was a bit cool with a high of 62 under partly cloudy skies.

Our gift to Michael, Ashley and family was a trip to

Legoland Florida. Here they are at the entrance.

It was cool when we visited.

We both made some new friends at our respective places of work. Martha took to a couple from Venezuela. They left their home country because the danger and corruption feeling their children deserved better. He is a software engineer and she is a food scientist. They are getting their start in the USA by working at Chick-fil-A while looking for better opportunities where they can put their university degrees to work. Elvis, the name of the woman, and Martha worked on learning about each other’s languages. Byron struck up a conversation at work with an International student from Australia. She was born in Thailand and left there with her mother when she was 13. Riya said she wanted to taste some Mexican food. We arranged to meet her one Sunday, took her to church and then a local Mexican restaurant. A few weeks later we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast.

The young girl in the photo is Pariya Singhanatnitirak, our new

friend who enjoyed a Mexican meal with us at Chevy’s.

We tend to participate in two activities at our RV resort: Hand and Foot card game and karaoke. For karaoke Byron sings and Martha listens. For Hand and Foot we both win some and lose some but do enjoy playing with others from the park.

The primary perk of working at Chick-fil-A (for Martha) is getting to food at a 50% discount. If it has been an especially productive week, she may get a meal at no cost. The perks of working at Disney World (for Byron) is getting dining discounts at many of the restaurants at the various lodges. The discounts are from 25% to 40% off. We take advantage of these when we can. This year we went to the luau at Polynesian Resort and to Sanaa in the Disney Vacation Club lodge at Animal Kingdom.

Our karaoke friends from Great Oak went with us to the

Polynesian Resort for the luau and program.

 Like the men, the female dancers at the luau were amazing.


The view outside the window of the lodges around
Animal Kingdom allows visitors to see the zebras, giraffes
wildebeasts, antelopes, and other animals grazing
in the early evening.

We took a day to go to Magic Kingdom by ourselves enjoying

things as adults and grandparents – there is a difference.

We got to even see the fireworks as guests. Byron usually works the

Fireworks Dessert Party at Tomorrowland Terrace and

doesn’t get to see the whole show. It is an amazing

program of fireworks and music.